Anniversary Trip to Boone

Nathan and I have been married for 10 long and happy years. Together we've experienced the joy of raising 5 children and the pain of 2 miscarriages and 1 stillborn baby daughter. We've rejoiced in the successes during the 8 years of Nathan's schooling, and cried about the failures and setbacks. Through the good and the bad we have been richly blessed and felt the Lord leading our lives. It's neat to see how much we've learned and grown in the past 10 years.

For our anniversary this year we took a trip just the two of us to the mountains in the Western part of the state. We decided since I'm not expecting or nursing a baby, we needed to do something really fun. To the mountains it was! It was awesome!!! Our relief society president's daughter, who turned 19 while we were gone, baby-sat for us Wednesday through Saturday last week. Here are some pictures from the great time we had:

The Waterfall Tree House where we stayed.

There was a little waterfall flowing off the big rock that we walked under in going up to the house. I loved the floor-to-ceiling windows that when I stood next to them and looked out it felt as if I were really up in a tree. It was a cute, cozy place to stay and we loved it.

We couldn't figure out the timer on our camera, so Nathan tried to take a picture of both of us.

We loved our table for two and enjoyed looking out at the trees. I could have sat there all day.
Sitting in a cool crooked tree on a hiking path to Linville Falls.
Us at Linville Falls
Another view of the falls after another hike.
On our actual anniversary, the 23rd, we ate dinner at Sagebrush Steakhouse. It was delicious!! We talked about all of our favorite memories from the past 10 years. We remembered the good times we had with friends or the kindnesses they showed us, especially our friends in Texas since we lived there 7 of the 10 years. We've been so blessed to have awesome people in our life who have loved and served us. We'll never forget you.
We just had to take a picture in front of the big Texas flag that was there, in remembrance of the Texas pride we used to have. :)
On Friday the 24th we hiked Grandfather Mountain and then went across the highest suspension bridge in the USA--5280' above sea level.
This is the view after we crossed it.
One of the many pictures I took of the gorgeous view.
Being silly and wanting a picture touching the sky.
Don't back up!


The kids waiting for their surprises--the souvenirs we bought them.

We had such a great time. I absolutely love the mountains. The weather was a perfect 75 degrees each day we were there and I couldn't get enough breaths of that fresh mountain air. I've already decided we're going back next summer and taking the kids.
We did a lot of hiking, picnicking, sightseeing, and tubing. The last day we spent at the Raleigh Temple. I've never left the kids overnight for a vacation before so it was a new experience to go and relax and enjoy the beautiful mountains. We didn't have cell service so I didn't even get to check in with them, but they had a lot of fun with the fantastic babysitter and brought her breakfast in bed on her birthday. I'm so grateful they were good for her and we didn't have car trouble and everything worked out well.

Alexis Turns Four!

Looking at the calendar and counting how many days are left.
July 7

Alexis with a package my parents sent her.
July 8

Luckily Alexis was fully recovered by her birthday because, as she informed me, "Nobody is ever sick on their birthday." Thomas was still sick and the others were at the very cranky stage of the illness and whined all day (instead of sleeping.) Although it drove me nuts, Alexis didn't seem to notice. She was still just as jumpy and cute as she could be.

Her birthday lunch after church--grilled cheese sandwiches and Pringles.
July 12

I love how she knows her mind when it comes to what she wants on her cake: "Purple frosting with pink letters that say Happy Birthday to me." Everything about her birth was absolutely perfect (and the only one out of 6 that the doctor made it for) and as I look back on that wonderful day, I can't believe she's already four. What a delight she is in our family. We love our smiley, cheerful girl.

Spencer's Pickins

Madalyn fared the best with the flu and next was Spencer. The other 3 got it pretty bad. The day Spencer started feeling better he went out to the garden and did a little picking. He wanted me to take some pictures of him and put them on the blog. So here they are!

Spencer is my best helper when it comes to yard and gardening work.

The pumpkin he's holding he carved his name into, although it's hard to see.
I'll puree one of these and stock pile it in the freezer to use for pumpkin bread and muffins in October. That is, if I can find the room since the freezer is full of strawberries and blueberries we've picked this summer. :)

A Bunch of Sickies

Yes, their toddler bed mattresses are on the floor. Why, I'm not sure. I think Kylie took this picture one of the few times she got off the couch.


For the past 2 weeks the children have been sick. Alexis was the first to come down with it on Saturday, June 27th. Then the boys got it on Friday the 3rd. Kylie and Madalyn both got it on Sunday the 5th. I think they had influenza because everyone got it except me and I was the only one who got a flu shot last winter (because I was pregnant.) They had a high fever for 7 days straight, then it gradually got lower and they had bad coughs and runny noses. They also complained of some nausea but only 2 threw up.
The first week was the worst because only Alexis had it and I kept wondering why the fever was so high and lasting so long. Everyone was cranky that we couldn't go anywhere or do anything or even have friends over. The second week when everyone else had it (and Alexis was still recovering and sleeping quite a bit) was wonderful! Everyone slept a lot and ate very little. In between giving them Tylenol and juice I scrapbooked. I'm so happy with how much I've gotten done. I did about 100 pages this summer--from June 2 to July 13--and am almost caught up. Now I've put it away because I have to work on homeschool curriculum since we're starting soon. I digress.
Back to the sickies, it was fun seeing them sleeping all day and everyone looked so cute. Especially Thomas. I molly-coddled him and pretended he was a newborn because he slept whenever and wherever. He rarely walked, but would fall asleep wherever I set him or after a few steps of trying to get up and follow me.








I loved coming in and out of my room and seeing him sleeping on my bed. It reminded me of when our newborns sleep on our bed during the day and made me miss Julianne so much. I was grateful Thomas let me hold him and cuddle him and would sleep in my arms or on my chest. He's such a sweet boy.

Pageant Week

Last week we had a wonderful opportunity to be in a pageant called, "The Promised Land." It was located in Bath, North Carolina's oldest town, which is about an hour east of us. The only practices were the week of the pageant, but were from 8am-11pm or later. With the hour commute, it made for long days. We missed breakfast and announcements most days and got there at 9am insead. The first couple of days we left early because the kids ran out of energy and Nathan wanted to see us before he went to bed. But as the week went on, the kids got used to napping at the producer's house and staying up late, so we were able to stay till we were done with minimal fits being thrown. We also got used to eating out of an ice chest all day and not complaining of being in the sun for 10 hours. Really, it was a great time. We made some wonderful friends, everyone was so helpful with the kids, and it was a very spiritual experience.

And it was also fun!
We did have about 2 hours of free time a day and on Tuesday we got to go on a boat ride! One of the members who lived in Bath generously let the cast come swim at his house and even took us on his boat one day. This was a turning point for the kids, who suddenly decided they liked being in the pageant afterall. :)

Thomas stuffing his sandwich dinner in before hopping on the boat.

Spencer got a thrill out of his first boat ride.



Kylie loved the pool. She tried to be the first one in and the last one out.
I was posting this picture to show you how beautiful their back yard on the river was. I also took pictures of their gorgeous house, but I don't know if they want them posted on my blog. :)

Swim, Madalyn!

If you think the weather looks on the cool side, you are right. So I don't blame the kids for spending a lot of time being in the hot tub. The rest of the week was hot, though.

All 5 of them fell asleep withing 5 minutes of leaving the pageant site on Tuesday night, even though it was only 8:00pm. Monday we left at 6, Tuesday 8, Wednesday, 9:30 and then the next 3 days we were able to stay until we were finished.

Wednesday Nathan was able to come out to Bath and it was so wonderful to have him there. The kids showed him all around including where to dig for shark's teeth and the lovely porta-potties.

Snack time in the wings just before the dress rehearsal Thursday night.

My 3 colonial girls.
They loved being in the pageant and were so cute.

All of us on Friday night. Nathan was on-call and couldn't come. I was so worried one of them might run out on stage when they weren't supposed to or start throwing some kind of fit, but happily, all went well.

The family on Saturday night's performance.
The kids' favorite part was running out to meet Daddy when he comes home from the war.

The 3 colonial boys.

Our pioneer costumes after the last performance. I forgot to get a family picture and the boys were already changing. I also forgot to get a picture of our Nehpite costumes. The children loved being in the scene with Christ and the children.

It was a great pageant. I was so amazed at the script and music. We're so glad we were in it. We never would have with a new baby, so I'm glad we took advantage and were in it this year. Check out the website baththeater.org and come see it next year!

Summer Happenins

Doing artsy stuff with Kylie's friend.

Whipping out some tasty snacks and treats. We ate cupcakes, brownies, and chocolate Chex mix that week.

Bringing the snack bucket to nursery. Thomas loves nursery!

Snoozing ALL day Father's Day (one of the few days Nathan got off in June) so that we didn't get to do anything else.

Making houses, mansions, and garages with cereal boxes. They think breakfast can take longer since we're not in a hurry to start school.
Yes, we eat a lot of cereal. I think a box a day. So we have 90 boxes in our pantry, enough for a 3 month supply! (The rest of our food isn't up to 3 months yet, so we may just be living off of cereal. That's fine with us:))